CZECH TOURISM: NUMBER OF VISITORS REACHED A NEW RECORD

Tourists are becoming increasingly interested in vacationing in the Czech Republic. This was confirmed by the latest data from the Czech Statistical Office for the month of May. The overall number of visitors in local hotels increased by 15.6% compared to April. Just in May 1.36 million people stayed in Czech hotels.

The May data represent the biggest ever monthly record for Czech tourism. The year on year growth in visitors is also very strong. It is reported that there were 4.2% more hotel visitors this year compared to May 2017.

The industry has been breaking many records this year. In the first five months, domestic hotels accommodated 5.52 million guests. Compared to the same period last year, the industry registered an increase of 6.7%. The number of overnight stays is also increasing. According to data, from January to May there were about 13.2 overnight stays in Czech accommodation facilities.

Experts expect that the current growth will be maintained in the remaining months of the year. Cheap flights and overall accessibility of the country are factors that will contribute to this fact, as well as increasingly favorable accommodation prices and other services in contrast with most Western European countries.

“There are still the strong summer months ahead of hoteliers. Prague and other destinations in the Czech Republic have become a point of interest of mass tourism mainly from Europe. The reason for this is that the prices are still much lower than, for example, in London or Paris. The type of tourists travelling to our country, however, is very price-sensitive. If hoteliers increased prices, the number of visitors would not grow as much,” Jakub Stanislav, an expert on hotel investments, said.

Czech tourism is following up on an already prosperous 2017. Last year, 14.2 million visitors were registered, while the number of overnight stays exceeded 34 million.

The prosperity is a result of both increases in foreign as well as domestic guests. Foreign visitors are still key for the overall numbers of Czech hoteliers, but the importance of domestic clients is growing.

The share of foreigners in terms of hotel guests in the first five months of the year was 61.6%. Last year it was higher by approximately 1%. Thanks to the growth of the economy and salaries Czech travelers go on vacation more often and often choose domestic destinations for their “second vacations”. Four-star hotels remain the most sought for. The number of four-star hotel guests increased by 5.6% (to 867 thousand) compared to May 2017.